


Endured Long Enough

by resolute



Category: X-23 (Comic)
Genre: Curtain Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-23
Updated: 2012-12-23
Packaged: 2017-11-22 04:15:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/605713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/resolute/pseuds/resolute
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A slice-of-life fic in a hypothetical apartment Laura shares with Jubliee.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Endured Long Enough

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JenNova](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JenNova/gifts).



Everything is normal, if endured long enough.

Laura liked this apartment. She hadn't lived in an apartment since that time in New York a few years back. That was different. At that point in her life normal had meant payment. Not the mess with the customers and their money, not that sort of payment. What had been normal for Laura at that time was her belief that she owed. She owed someone, everyone, something so large and heavy that the only way to make it better was her blood and pain. Blood and pain were normal.

Not now.

Laura climbed the steps up to the back of the apartment, the bag of groceries on one hip. She fished the keys out of her jacket pocket and unlocked the door. Inside, the kitchen was bright with sunlight from the windows over the sink. Laura locked the door behind her and set the paper bag down. A note on the counter let her know that Jubliee would be home for dinner. Laura picked up the sheet of paper and sniffed it carefully. It smelled of Jubilee, of her scent and perfume and lotion and the fact that she'd been eating oranges recently. It did not smell of fear or pain or rage. Laura nodded.

After putting the groceries away Laura got out a plastic plate. She smeared it with peanut butter, and some tuna from a can. It smelled like something she would eat if she were hungry -- truly hungry, in a way she wasn't these days. The gnawing emptiness that made her hands tremble. Laura remembered that she used to feel that way often. But not now.

Laura unlocked the back door. She put the plate of food down at the edge of the narrow balcony where Jubliee parked her bike. Laura moved as far in the other direction as possible and sat on the worn wooden railing. It was chilly out here. She tucked her hands into her jacket sleeves. The metal in her arms always made her a bit cold.

Pigeons flew past. The wind picked up, then died. The sunlight moved across the back steps slowly. Laura heard a police siren sound, and move away.

The cat crept up the steps. Skinny. Its tail was ragged. It spotted Laura. The cat watched her for a moment. Laura didn't move. She hadn't moved any other day she had done this. The cat slunk around the perimeter of the railing to the food. It licked each paw, once, then settled in to eat while Laura watched.

Everything can be normal. Normal can change.


End file.
